Romney on Santorum: He'll play a role going forward

By Maggie Haberman

04/10/12 06:33 PM EDT

Via POLITICO's Reid Epstein, Mitt Romney gave his first in-person reaction to Rick Santorum's decision to halt his campaign because of his ailing daughter, Bella, and a dwindling path to 1,144 delegates while on the stump in Wilmington, Del.:

“This has been a, a good day for me. Sen. Santorum has decided not to proceed with his campaign. I had the chance to speak with him this morning. We exchanged our thoughts about going forward and we both had a great deal of interest in seeing the country taken in a very different path. He has made an important contribution to the political process, has brought forward issues he cares very deeply about and has been able to gather a great deal of public support and interest in those issues and in himself and he will continue to have a major role in the Republican Party and I look forward to his work in helping assure victories for Republicans across the country in November.”